Taxes top issue in Chelmsford selectman's race

CHELMSFORD -- When each of the five Board of Selectmen candidates was asked at a forum last week for their top two issues in town, one answer was practically unanimous: taxes.

The average residential property-tax bill will rise this year by $146, or 2.6 percent, thanks to what town officials in November called a significant shift in the valuation of commercial, industrial and residential properties. The valuation of single-family homes went down only slightly, while industrial and commercial properties fell by a greater amount, leaving residential property owners to pick up a greater share of overall taxes.

The average residential tax bill -- on a property worth $323,000 -- will rise to $5,799.

Taxes have become a major part of the election season, with five candidates seeking two selectmen seats.

No candidate has repeatedly called out the importance of keeping taxes down more than Bob Joyce, a selectman in the mid-1990s and now a Planning Board member.

"The major issue in town, and in the future, is taxes," he said at a recent debate. "I think the Board of Selectmen has an opportunity to provide some leadership to the management to use funding in a certain way."

Joyce has advocated for diverting free cash, which has been used to build reserves, to providing tax relief. He criticized the town for starting new projects that keep the debt level flat, instead of reducing debt as payment on past projects end.

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Janet Askenburg, the School Committee chairwoman, said in a debate she wants to reduce taxes and fill commercial vacancies, which could also keep taxes down by bringing more tax revenue to the town.

"We hear that from everyone in the community," she said of the importance of reducing taxes.

Askenburg has proposed soliciting a free efficiency study from the state Department of Revenue that she says could allow for reduced spending. She's also proposed streamlining the approval and permitting process for people looking to open a business in town as a way to cut in half the commercial vacancy rate.

Matt Hanson, an incumbent seeking his second term, said providing tax relief "if possible" is important but called it "a difficult challenge." He's touted the town's use of more than $900,000 in reserves last year toward tax relief and said the board has made tax relief a priority more than previous boards.

Hanson has also advocated for a regional 911 dispatch system, which he says would save the town an estimated $200,000 annually. Finding other ways of keeping services while lowering costs is not easy, especially with rising largely unavoidable costs like employee and retiree benefits, he said.

"There's not a lot of wiggle room in our budget unless you want to cut services."

Patrick Maloney, a member of the Permanent Building Committee, which oversees capital projects, said he'd like to maintain the size of the stabilization fund reserve but would like to see debt payments fall in the coming years when current projects are completed.

"As our debt declines and we finish up our major capital projects, I think we can start to look forward to a time with a better economy, as we move forward we can really start to think about doing some serious work to try to eliminate the escalation and cost to the taxpayers," he said.

"The costs to the taxpayers is what we really need to focus on," Joyce added later.

Roland Van Liew, in a debate last week, called for a "better vetting of expenses so we can run more effectively and have lower costs to the taxpayer."

Van Liew has criticized the town for tax increases and overspending on capital projects including the new central fire station to be built on Billerica Road.

He has said better accounting oversight needs to be put in place, such as requiring written work order forms for relatively small-budget items.

"When you have a systemic problem," Van Liew said, referring to rising taxes, "you have to look at the processes and you have to change them."

"It's very difficult to monitor that process and make sure things are done efficiently," he continued. "How would you even do a study? There's no documentation for the past five to 10 years. How would you even do an efficiency study?"

Chelmsford falls in the middle among comparable Lowell area communities for average single-family tax bills, according to data provided by the town.

Billerica, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury and Tyngsboro had lower average bills in 2012, between $3,236 in Lowell and $4,838 in Tyngsboro. Acton, Bedford, Carlisle, Littleton and Westford all pay more, ranging from $5,960 in Littleton to $11,900 in Carlisle.

The average single-family tax bill in Chelmsford has risen by 67 percent since 2000, according to town data. That increase also puts the town about in the middle of Lowell-area communities. The average value of a single-family home has risen at almost the same -- 65 percent -- during that time.

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